Automatic analysis systems each include an automatic analyzer(s) to assay physical properties of such a biological sample as of blood or urine, or of a liquid mixture of the biological sample and a reagent(s), and thus to analyze the sample or the liquid mixture. These systems also include processing units to execute various steps such as destoppering a container that contains the sample, dispensing the sample, stoppering the container, stirring the sample, and analyzing the sample.
During the destoppering of containers in such an automatic analysis system, the plurality of destoppering/stoppering means described in Patent Documents 1 to 6, for example, are available as conventional techniques relating to a destoppering/stoppering unit that removes a stopper body from/mounts it on a sample container or a reagent container. Hereinafter, these operations are referred to as the destoppering/stoppering steps or processes.
The destoppering/stoppering means described in Patent Document 1 is of the following type. A test tube with a stopper body previously mounted thereupon is carried to a stopper cutoff position and after the stopper is clamped from both sides at the stopper cutoff position by a chuck, the chuck unit moves upward to remove the stopper from the test tube. Next after a reagent and/or the like is mixed into a sample contained in the test tube, the chuck unit moves downward to mount the stopper on the test tube.
In Patent Document 2, an automatic analyzer equipped with means to destopper/stopper a reagent container is provided, in which scheme, reliable destoppering/stoppering is possible when the stopper is one integrated with the container.
The stoppering device described in Patent Document 3 is such that the device is fitted with a positioning device for conveying a test tube and with stopper supply means for supplying a plurality of stoppers, one at a time, and such that the device mounts a stopper on the test tube by holding down the stopper from an upper surface using a chuck unit placed above the stoppering position. The conventional stoppering device in Patent Document 3 enables efficiently continuous mounting of stoppers on test tubes and is useable even in a confined place because of requiring no horizontal movement of paired chucks.
The stoppering device described in Patent Document 4 is such that the device can stopper an upper opening in the container reliably with mechanisms relatively simplified as a whole. In the conventional stoppering device according to Patent Document 4, successive stoppering steps from carrying the stopper to inserting it are distributed to the plurality of mechanisms, to enable streamlined stoppering and to render simple and reliable stoppering achievable by combining different insertion schemes different from each other.
In Patent Documents 5, 6, on the other hand, different kinds of means are provided that enable destoppering, even if test tubes of diverse sizes are mixedly used.
In Patent Document 5, test tube stopper removal means is provided that can remove stoppers rapidly and accurately even in a case that the mounted test tubes are of diverse sizes and the mounted stoppers vary in kind (push-fit rubber stoppers or cork stoppers and screwdown-type stoppers).
In Patent Document 6, a sample preprocessing system is provided that includes a destoppering unit capable of removing stoppers even in a case that sample containers of different heights (or of different stopper shapes and/or different stopper diameters) are mixedly present on one sample rack.